ILX Structures
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Tutorial 1 of 7 · Beginner · about 20 minutes

Your first frame

In this tutorial you build a small two-story steel moment frame, two bays wide, give it sections and supports, apply a simple load, run a linear static analysis and read the results. It takes about twenty minutes and touches every part of the workspace you will use every day.

You need an ILX account: start a free trial if you do not have one yet.

1. Create a project

  1. Sign in. The app opens on your list of projects.
  2. Click New project, give it a name ("Tutorial frame") and, if you like, a number and a client. You can change all of it later.
  3. Open the project and click New model. The workspace opens with an empty model.

The workspace has the ribbon at the top (Home, Model, Loads, Analyze, Results, Design, Advanced, Report, View, Seismic), the model tree on the left, the 3D view in the middle, the properties panel on the right and the data tables at the bottom. Your work is saved automatically as you go.

2. Set the units

Open your account menu, then Settings, and pick US units (feet, inches and kips) or SI units. The choice is your default for every new project; a project can override it. Every input box shows its unit, so you always know what you are typing.

3. Lay out grid lines and stories

  1. On the Model tab, click Grid lines & stories.
  2. Add grid lines A, B and C at 0, 25 and 50 feet in one direction, and grid line 1 at 0 feet in the other.
  3. Add the stories: Base at 0 feet, Level 2 at 14 feet and Roof at 26 feet.
  4. Click OK. The grid appears in the 3D view, and the pointer snaps to its intersections.

4. Draw the columns and beams

  1. On the Home tab, pick the Member tool.
  2. Click a grid intersection at the base, then the same grid line at Level 2: that is a column. Draw the columns on grid lines A, B and C up to the roof.
  3. Draw the beams along grid line 1 at Level 2 and at the roof.
  4. Press Escape to leave the tool. The model tree lists the new nodes and members.

Made a mistake? Undo (Ctrl+Z) takes back any step, including a whole drawing session.

5. Give the members sections and a material

  1. Select the six columns (click one, then Shift-click the others, or use Groups & select by… on the Model tab).
  2. In the properties panel, pick the material A992 and the section W14X90. The section list is the full AISC shape database: type to search.
  3. Select the beams and give them W18X35.
  4. Turn on Extruded sections on the View tab to see the real shapes in 3D.

6. Add supports

  1. Pick the Support tool on the Home tab.
  2. Click the three base nodes and choose Fixed. The support symbols appear in the 3D view.

For a pinned base, a roller or a spring, choose that instead, or use Support: custom DOF / spring on the Model tab to restrain any combination of directions.

7. Apply a load

  1. On the Loads tab, click Load cases and add a case D of the kind Dead.
  2. Select the beams and click Distributed load: a uniform load of 1.2 kips per foot, downward, in case D.
  3. Click Self-weight and switch it on for case D, so the members' own weight is added when the model is solved.

The next tutorial, Loads and load combinations, adds live, snow and wind loads and the code combinations.

8. Check the model and run it

  1. On the Analyze tab, click Check model. It lists loose nodes, members with no section and anything that would make the structure unstable, and selects each one in the 3D view when you click it. A clean model says so.
  2. Click Run analysis. The analysis runs on the server as a background job: the progress shows at the bottom, and Cancel analysis stops it. A small frame like this one finishes in a moment.

9. Read the results

  1. On the Results tab, pick the load case D in the result case selector.
  2. Deformed shape shows the deflected frame, scaled so you can see it. Hover a node for its displacements.
  3. The member force diagrams show moment, shear and axial force along every member.
  4. Reactions shows the support reactions; their total matches the applied load, a quick check worth making on every model.
  5. Result tables lists every number: displacements, reactions and member end forces, ready to copy or download.

What next

Screens in the app may differ slightly from the words here as the app gains features; the steps stay the same. Questions: services@ilxstudio.com.